Sunil Babu Pant: The Champion of Nepal's LGBTI Movement

Mr. Pant in his office

Mr. Sunil Babu Pant is the first openly gay politician in Nepal and was a member of the dissolved Constituent Assembly representing a small Leftist party. He is the founder of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), an organization that advocates for the rights of Nepal’s sexual minorities. The excerpt below is a summary from our conversation in July of 2012.

In 2000, I would frequent Ratna Park (a small park in downtown Kathmandu) hoping to find other people like me. That is kind of how the BDS started. I was surprised to find so many Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered people there. After meeting with all these people and forming a small community, we realized there were many issues related to LGBTI (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered-Intersex) people, such as blackmailing, physical abuse, sexual abuse, restrictions from going outside of home, restrictions from going to school and job discrimination, especially among Transgendered individuals. There was even a case of murder in Gorkha district (central Nepal). From these incidents and experiences, we decided to form and register the BDS as an organization in 2001.

During the Maoist insurgency as well as the State of Emergency (declared by the state), it was very difficult times for us as there were lot of police and security forces on the streets, and they often arrested and harassed people from our communities. Things started becoming a little easier from 2007. We participated in the 2006 Jana Andolan (People’s Movement) II to restore democracy. After the People’s Movement, the new government in 2007 did not listen to our demands, and I filed a case against the government in the Supreme Court, which I won. After winning this case, things started improving for us. Recently, the provision for including the option of "Other," in which one could state a third gender or transgender or otherwise in Nepali citizenship has been approved. A law for same sex marriage is also being drafted.

We have fewer formal membership in the organization because members have to submit a copy of their citizenship at the office of Chief District Officer (CDO) and most of the people in the community don’t want to openly come out due to societal and family stigma. However, we are in contact in with more than 400,000 LGBTI all over the country. We have program offices in 40 cities all across Nepal. Our movement has become a visible national movement. We are now thinking of focusing our programs on new opportunities in areas where violence and discrimination has subsided, such as in education, health care, jobs, small business development and microcredit. And there are also certain people within the LGBTI community who are politically active and there are discussions about partaking in politics. There are some of us who think we should remain involved with different political parties according to one’s own political leanings. And there are others who think we should encompass younger LGBTI youth and start our own party.

I was invited by the Communist Party of Nepal (United), a small Leftist party to join the Constituent Assembly (now dissolved). I was not affiliated with any political parties before this. I accepted the CPN's invitation for the sake of drafting the constitution. I am leaning towards continuing my involvement in politics. I will have to discuss with the CPN and the people in the LGBTI community as to how we should move our cause forward, politically. The choices are that we could form a LGBTI party or be involved individually in different parties. We will finalize all these in the coming days.

For further reading:

The New Republic: What Can We Learn From Nepal's Inclusion of 'Third Gender' on its 2011 Census?   

Wave Magazine: Patient Courage - Roshan Mahato Takes the Lead for LGBTI Students in Nepal

My Republica: Nepal's Gay Rights Movement